Abstract
The purpose of this study is to find a way to increase power generation by wind power generators. For wind power generators, cogging torque operates to resist generation. Firstly, a core-less coil generator to have smaller cogging torque was considered and developed. Such wind power generators are thought to be useful as self-powered street lights in case of disaster occurrence such as earthquakes, which may cause electricity system trouble. When an earthquake occurs at night, people may not be able to easily escape without lights. Today, more than 70 units of self-powered street lights with a solar sell and a wind power generator had been installed mainly in Kochi, Shikoku. As wind power wing, savonius-type and gyro-type ones were considered. The prior stage of generator development was to study inside of generators by products dissection. The obtained information was combined with the knowledge obtained during development of eddy current brakes. The eddy current brakes were used in Japan as retarders for trucks and buses. Through the analytical study, non-magnetic material for a drum is found to be preferable. Therefore, core-less coil for wind power generators was selected. The next stage is to obtain more power generation with cored coil generators.
